THE CURE TO LONELINESS by Ray C. Stedman In our series on the Treasures of the Parables of Jesus we have been looking at certain fascinating stories that our Lord told which illustrated some fantastic truths, and have been trying to discover what was hidden away, by divine forethought, in these wonderful stories. But not all the parables of Jesus are stories. Sometimes he used what we might call a mini-parable , i.e., a metaphor, a figure of speech, a parabolic illustration. Around this, he would gather certain vital teaching. Because this is Communion Sunday, and a parabolic illustration which our Lord used is very fitting, I want to look at one of these mini-parables. It is the record of the last public utterance of Jesus before he went to the cross, found in John 12, Verses 20 through 26. Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew went with Philip and they told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat fails into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this word will keep it for eternal life. If any one serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me, the Father will honor him." {John 12:20-26 RSV} This was a crisis moment in our Lord's ministry. It came just before the cross, as the opposition to him was sharpening throughout the city. John goes on to record in the next chapter how he took his disciples apart into an upper room and there delivered his last discourse in which he outlined for them the relationships that would obtain in the age of the church, to follow. In this account of the visit of the Greeks, we have the third of the three occasions when the voice of God spoke directly from heaven, during the life of the Lord Jesus: The first was at his baptism. As he came up out of the water, God spoke from heaven and said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" {Matt 3:17 KJV}, and thus set his seal upon the thirty silent years of our Lord's life. The second occasion was at the transfiguration, when Peter, James, and John were with the Lord on the mount and suddenly he was transfigured before them. When Peter, in his impetuous bluntness, suggested that they build three tabernacles and stay there to spend time with Moses and Elijah and Jesus, the voice of God spoke again from heaven and said, "This is my beloved Son (not Moses or Elijah); listen to him," {cf, Matt 17:5}. Again, on this occasion when the Greeks come to visit Jesus the voice of the Father comes from heaven, "I have glorified my name, and I will glorify it again," {cf, John 12:28}. Now we are not told why these Greeks wanted to see Jesus, though it is not surprising that they did, for the whole city was talking about him at this time. In Verse 17 of this chapter, we learn that the whole city was astir, yet agog over the resurrection of Lazarus. The crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness. {John 12:17 RSV} Men were still stirred by this amazing miracle that had happened just over the Mount of Olives, in the little village of Bethany, and they were talking about it everywhere. Evidently these Greeks, coming up to Jerusalem, perhaps as tourists, and allowed to enter the court of the Gentiles, had heard rumors of this amazing man and wanted to see him. They found the disciples of Jesus and very naturally chose Philip as the one to approach because he bore a Greek name. Philip and Andrew are the two disciples who bore Greek names. John tells us also that Philip came from Bethsaida in Galilee, and Galilee was noted for its strong Page: 1 Greek influence. Philip may well have been named for Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great. At any rate, these Greeks recognized a kindred spirit and came to him and asked if they could see Jesus. Now they did not merely want to see him as a kind of tourist attraction; they wanted conversation with him. They wanted an interview with Jesus. Philip did not know what to do about that. He was the quiet, mousy one of the disciples. You will find him appearing a little later, in Chapter 14, and there also he reveals a quiet spirit. So he went to Andrew, and they held a committee meeting. This was a very good committee meeting, because they reached a prompt decision. But, oh, the risks God takes sometimes in carrying out his program! Imagine committing such an important decision to a committee! Most committees merit the well-known definition: A group of the uncommitted, appointed by the unwilling, to do the unnecessary. But this committee functioned properly. They made a quick decision and brought the request to Jesus. When they reported the request of these Greeks, the Lord replies to them very strangely. And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified." {John 12:23 RSV} This reply must have startled Philip and Andrew. For 3-1/2 years while they had been with Jesus they had heard him say over and over, "My hour has not yet come." You have the first account of it in the first miracle Jesus did, when his mother came to him and asked him to do something about the wine for the wedding feast. Jesus said to her, "Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour has not yet come," {cf, John 2:4}. He did not mean by that that he would not do anything for her, because he did. He went on to change the water into wine. But he meant by it that it would not result in anything significant. There would be no display of his glory through it. No one would understand who he was, no one could see him for what he was, because of that miracle. And so it proved to be true. Then in the seventh chapter of his Gospel, John tells us that Jesus told his brothers to go on up to the feast at Jerusalem but that he was not going up because "my hour has not yet come" {cf, John 7:6}. And, in the eighth chapter, as he is speaking in Jerusalem and already the opposition against him is beginning to form, John says, "No man laid hands on him to arrest him, because his hour had not yet come," {cf, John 8:20}. Yet now, when a handful of strangers come and the report is carried to Jesus that a certain group of Greeks want to see him, suddenly, to his disciples' amazement, he seems greatly moved with emotion and says, "Now my hour has come. The time has come for me to be glorified." This event seems to be to Jesus like a great clock striking the hour, a momentous moment of his life when all that he had lived for shall now find its fulfillment. This reveals two very interesting things about our Lord, things that have helped me a great deal. First, it indicates how clearly he recognized that the program of his life was in the Father's hands. Sometimes we have the idea that Jesus knew everything that was going to happen to him before it happened, that nothing ever took him by surprise because he had a kind of preview of his life. But that is a mistaken concept. He did not know anything more what would happen to him during one day, or even in the next moment, than we do. If otherwise, it would not be true that "he was tempted in all points like as we are" {cf, Heb 4:15}, and thus lived on the same level we live. He did not know these Greeks were coming, but he realized when they came that they came in the Father's program, and that everything that happened to him was the unfolding of the Father's purpose in his life. One of the greatest delivering experiences to me was to learn this truth. I have seen it happen to others as well. When we begin to realize that the Word of God means exactly what it says and that all things that happen to us are planned and brought into being by Another, then we are delivered from anxiety. And therefore we are not Page: 2 to grumble, complain, or gripe and groan at what happens to us, for it is the Father's choice. That is why Paul tells us, "Do all things without murmuring or disputing," {cf, Phil 2:14 KJV}. It is but God's program unfolding for us. Our Lord lived on that basis and when these Greeks came he understood that they came because the Father had sent them.